Random Thoughts from a Random Memory

By Edward Master

I'm old enough to remember the steam locomotives coming by the house when my mother was hanging wash on the clothes line. I had to be four or five years old. The trains would blow their whistles because the tracks crossed a road to the east, and at one time, there was a building/station nearby. Little did I know that the B&O railroad would one day, for a summer, be my employer and later probably the chief cause of my military deferment.

I got the job because Ivan (Bones) Best was the foreman of the track gang out of Knox, and he was also a childhood friend of my father. One of the few childhood stories dad told me about Bones was when playing cowboys and Indians, once, the guys hung Bones with a rope, and his neck got infected. I'm not sure how he got the nickname, Bones, cause he was a tall, lanky fellow, who was quite strong, as the legend goes, and he would carry a railroad tie on each shoulder. I imagine the story to be true as he would often complain about a sore/bad back in his later years. No wonder!

I would walk to Bones' house across town and ride with him to the station in Knox. We wouldn't leave for a job out of town until 7:30, but would have to be back at the station by 4:30. It was a strong union.

The funny thing about the job was that everything was heavy. The railroad spikes came in a wooden keg. I don't quite recall how we moved them, but I believe there was some rolling of kegs involved. A spike maul, to drive a spike, in itself was not a feather-weight tool.

We moved and set rails by hand with rail tongs. We moved railroad ties, two guys to a tie. That summer, we put two crossings in Knox. One near Rhea's lumber yard and one near the former American Legion. We spent one day near Kane restoring track from a wreck, and a day around Chicora replacing some rail, all by hand.

The other summer hires were from Punxsutawney, and most were college students like me. I know some girls were discussed, who attended Clarion U, who were from Punxy.

Because of all the heavy lifting that would be required for the job, I had to get my back x-rayed, which required a trip to Punxsutawney before I even started work. That became the least of my worries. As I said, everything was heavy. More importantly, though, was the fact that I learned to drive a railroad spike with the spike maul. You had to put the maul the size of a quarter flat against the end of the spike. That required bending your back so you had it flat surface against a flat surface. Trust me. I bent many a spike learning how to. However, that skill also learned me how to win prizes by ringing the bell on the Atlantic City boardwalk and local carnivals. The secret is flat on flat, not strength; bend your back!

We also installed "creepers" with a creeper wrench. A creeper was put on either side of a railroad tie to prevent a "back and forth" movement by the rail. Don't ask me how! Basically, the installation required a shrugging motion with your upper back muscles (trapezious). The creeper looked like a U-shaped half horseshoe. Some of them were quite stiff. It was supposed to "snap" onto the rail. Sometimes the snap proved very difficult.

That's where my difficulty started, I believe. I started to wake in the morning to go to work, but I couldn't close my hands. By the time I got to work, though, I could move my hands, thank goodness. I got a shot from my family doctor. Upon my return to college, I noticed several of my fingers were numb at their ends. I found out why after my physical to be drafted into the military.

I ended up going to a neurologist in Pittsburgh, by orders of the draft board. I was told that I had pinched nerves in either my chest, my neck, or my wrists. I would not be drafted into the military, nor could I enlist in the military. Physically, I could not do work above my head, or I would lose feeling in my hands. I classified "4F" in the draft.

Some would say I was lucky. I'm not so sure. I guess I could have had bone spurs.